Going Home

When my sister's husband passed away three years ago, she was sick with pneumonia, and I had to take over some tasks that I wasn't totally prepared to do.  I had suggested a bagpiper at the cemetery.  She agreed.  It added $150 to the ceremony, which made me wonder if it was worth it.  It was!  Roger was Canadian by birth.  He and I--and all of us, perhaps--loved bagpipes.  We, of course, asked for Amazing Grace, which is a common request.

As we arrived at the grave site on the day of the funeral, the piper was already in place and piping, as we gathered.  Amazing Grace, of course, met all of us.  And then the piper went into another song.  I had heard it before.  Couldn't put my finger on it.  As the piper still played and slowly walked off toward the trees, it all seemed so right.  Then we turned to the business of giving Roger to God's care.

A day or so later, in a private moment, I googled "bagpipe funeral songs" and there it was on YouTube.  The song is called Going Home, and you don't even have to know lyrics to hear the words.  Going home.  Roger had gone Home.  And I cried.

Home is a big deal for me.  I never really had one much of my life, except my grandparents' farm.  I didn't have roots in the military that was my childhood.  I never really had friends that I could keep much longer than between stations for my dad.  I think it made me weaker, yet stronger, all at the same time.  When I had a child of my own, I wanted roots for her that I never had.  I'm not sure that she understands how many decisions I made back in the day just to make sure she had the roots that hadn't been mine.  It doesn't matter.

Why does this all come up today?  Well...I subscribe to an online greeting card site that has beauty, fantasy, and class.  Their latest offering for Thanksgiving has Going Home playing in the background.
Everyone wants to go home for Thanksgiving, right?  Much more than Christmas, Thanksgiving is a time for families to gather and close ranks with whatever else has transpired with them in the past year.  It is more personal, introspective, and necessary for personal peace.

When it is my time to "go home", I will do it with the understanding that God is in charge, with LOVE along the way.  In the meantime, bring on Thanksgiving!  I have so much to be thankful for.